Pekida: There’s no IC scam
(The Star) – A Sabah businessman has warned that any attempt to probe claims of foreigners getting dubious identification documents would cause a backlash.
Datu Mohd Akjan Datu Mohammad said any investigation through the formation of a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) would lead to misunderstandings, hatred and disunity among the ethnic groups in the state.
Speaking as Islamic Welfare and Sermon Organisation of Malaysia (Pekida) Sabah chairman, Mohd Akjan said the group believed the repeated calls for such a probe were selfish and politically-motivated acts to undermine and incite hatred against the present Barisan Nasional-led government.
“All these are being done without any consideration for the sentiment of the ethnic groups in Sabah,” said Mohd Akjan who caused an uproar a year ago by accepting an offer to become the 33rd Sultan of the southern Philippine province of Sulu.
He said the ethnic communities here, including the Bajau, Suluk, Bugis, Chinese, Indians, Pakistanis and Arabs had obtained their citizenship through legitimate means.
Mohd Akjan said the Government had the prerogative to issue citizenship to those who had fulfilled the various criteria and requirements stipulated in the Federal Constitution.
A Sabah MCA division has called for an RCI to probe widespread allegations of foreigners getting identification documents through dubious means.
In making the call, Penampang MCA deputy chief Robert Chin Swee Ming said the issue was linked to Sabah’s population explosion over the past decades.
Chin said Sabah’s population experienced an abnormal growth from 648,000 in 1970 to more than 2.6 million or 301% in 2000 compared with Sarawak’s growth of 106% from 976,000 during the same period.
